National Police Service Fights Brutality Allegations

The National Police Service has dispelled allegations made by opposition NASA leaders of killing civilians during post-vote protests by Nasa supporters.

In a statement, police spokesperson George Kinoti said claims that police officers have killed "100 persons" were false.

"The National Police Service takes great exception to untruthful allegations made by some Nasa politicians to the effect that the Police are responsible for killing 100 persons and hiding the corpses in body bags... these allegations are unfounded and have no basis in fact and are clearly aimed at escalating tensions in the country," the statement read.

Protests in various parts of the country were witnessed since Friday after the electoral commission declared Uhuru Kenyatta the winner of the presidential race, in an election strongly disputed by Nasa leaders led by Raila Odinga.

"In the past two days, we are aware of six fatalities in which criminals armed and acting with deadly intent attacked police officers attempting to effect arrest, resulting in fatal neutralisation of the attackers." Kinoti's statement read.

"In Nairobi's Ruaraka, two criminals were shot dead while breaking into a supermarket at Kasabuni. When challenged to surrender, they attacked the law enforcement officers with machetes with an intent to harm them,".

"The third one was in Starehe, Nairobi, where there was a group of 25 people armed with assorted crude weapons breaking into private houses and who menacingly challenged and charged at police officers.
The fourth and fifth criminals were fatally neutralised after a gang of six broke into a shop in Kariobangi, Nairobi. As police pursued them, they fired at the police officers who fired back in defence,".

"The sixth fatality occurred in Kisumu when a criminal was shot after a large riotous mob blocked Dago-Kiboswa road and barricaded it with bonfires and stones and attacked motorists and pedestrians. The police officers attempting to effect arrest were also attacked," the statement adds.

"On the death of the nine-year-old girl named Stephanie Moraa who was shot dead in Mathare North Area 2 on Saturday, Police said the situation is "sad and unfortunate", saying she was killed by unknown people,".